Mark Brönstrup

Prof Mark Brönstrup heads the department of Chemical Biology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research; additionally, he holds a Professorship (W3) at the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. His research group employs state-of-the-art chemical strategies to tackle infectious diseases. His team conducts structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies and medicinal chemistry campaigns on both natural products and synthetic compounds, producing potent novel derivatives with new modes of action, and good efficacy in vivo. Moreover, they have refined the “Trojan Horse” strategy, whereby they exploit the need for iron of bacteria to gain access into them using molecules called “siderophores”. His various research interests include the development of new drug modalities and of AI-supported technologies.

Current Position

as of 12/13     Head of Department of Chemical Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig; Professor (W3) at Leibniz University of Hannover

Academic Education and Degrees

1991 – 1996      Philipps University, Marburg, Germany, and Imperial College, London, UK. Chemistry studies. Diploma Thesis in Organic Chemistry (with Prof. Dr. Reinhard W. Hoffmann)

1997 – 1999      TU Berlin, Germany. Doctoral Thesis in Organometallic Chemistry in the Gas Phase (with Prof. Dr. Drs. h.c. Helmut Schwarz)

Previous Professional Work Experience

2010 – 2013      Sanofi R&D, Frankfurt, Germany

                        Section Head of Biomarkers & Diagnostics, Domain Head of Biomarkers, Bioimaging & Biological Assays

2005 – 2010      Sanofi-Aventis R&D, Chemical Sciences, Frankfurt, Germany

                        Section Head of Natural Product Sciences

2003                Harvard Medical School, Department of Cell Biology, Boston, USA

Guest Scientist with Prof. Steven P. Gygi

2000 – 2004      Aventis R&D, Department of Chemistry, Frankfurt, Germany

Laboratory Head for Mass Spectrometry

Research Interests

– Antibacterial and antiviral drug discovery with a focus on natural product-derived lead optimization

– Antibacterial drug conjugates

– Mode of action studies through metabonomics, intracellular drug quantification, peptide arrays, chemical pulldown experiments, pattern matching techniques, including analytical method development

– Medium throughput screening in S1-S3 labs

Additional Information

– Scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (1993-1996)

– Kékulé Scholarship of the Fonds der chemischen Industrie (1997-1999)

– Schering Prize of the Technical University of Berlin (1999/2000)

– Wolfgang Paul Prize of the German Society of Mass Spectrometry (2001)

– Coordinator of Helmholtz Portfolio Topic ‘Drug Research’ (since 2013)

– Spokesman of Topic 3 ‘Novel Antiinfectives’ at HZI (2020-2024)

– Member of the Supervisory Board of the HZI (since 2022)

– Associate Editor of ACS Infectious Diseases (since 2023)

– Spokesman for Hannover/Braunschweig of the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF) (since 2024)

– ERC Synergy grant for project ‘AI4AMR’ (2025)

Publications

185 research papers, 2 book chapters, 29 patent applications, h-index: 42; 4 example publications:

Highly potent quinoxalinediones inhibit a-hemolysin and ameliorate Staphylococcus aureus lung infections. A. Shekhar, R. Di Lucrezia, K. Jerye, V.S. Korotkov, K. Harmrolfs, […], K. Dinkel, M. Brönstrup.Cell Host Microbe (2025), 33, 560–572. DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2025.03.006.

Activity-Based Protein Profiling Identifies Protein Disulfide-Isomerases as Target Proteins of the Volatile Salinilactones. K. Jerye, H. Lüken, A. Steffen, C. Schlawis, L. Jänsch, S. Schulz, M. Brönstrup. Adv. Sci. (2024), 2309515. doi: 10.1002/advs.202309515

A Targeted Click-to-Release Activation of the Last-Resort Antibiotic Colistin Reduces its Renal Cell Toxicity. J. Charoenpattarapreeda, …, M. Brönstrup. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2024), e202408360. doi: 10.1002/anie.202408360.

Enzyme-activated, Chemiluminescent Siderophore-Dioxetane Probes Enable the Selective and Highly Sensitive Detection of Bacterial ESKAPE Pathogens. C. Peukert, S.P. Gholap, O. Green, L. Pinkert, J. van den Heuvel, M. van Ham, D. Shabat, M. Broenstrup. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2022), e202201423. doi: 10.1002/anie.202201423.